Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

Invincible: Legacy And Propaganda In Superhero Comics, Natalie R. Sheppard

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Captain America and Iron Man are both iconic American heroes, representing different American values. Captain America was created during the Golden Age of comics and represents a longing for the past, while Iron Man was created at the height of the Cold War and looks forward to a new America. This paper will first establish the historical and cultural relationship between comic books and propaganda, beginning with the first appearance of Superman. It will pay special attention to the similarities and differences of Captain America and Iron Man, focusing on their representation of American values over time, and discuss how …

Birth By Sleep: An Immersive Adventure Through Wonderland, Edd Bass

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

When Lewis Carroll wrote down Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland he never expected it to become a worldwide sensation. His work has gained a following as psychoanalysis has allowed people to dive deeper into Alice’s dream world. Many books and movies based on the Alice books have been released, such as Sucker Punch. On a seemingly unrelated topic, a company called Punchdrunk has created an immersive theatre piece known as Sleep No More in which the audience runs around a “hotel” following different actors and trying to unveil the story unfolding. Immersive Theatre allows for the audience to be swallowed up …

The Submissive, The Angel, And The Mad Woman In District 12: Feminine Identity In Suzanne Collins’S The Hunger Games, Kirstie E. Linstrom

English 502: Research Methods

The social roles women are given in literature are often debated by critics. This essay discusses the treatment and perceptions of female characters in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy. Throughout the trilogy, the male characters shape the identities of the female characters through language and enforcing Western gender roles. Katniss, Prim, and their mother each fill different roles typically assigned to women. Katniss is a submissive female; Prim is the innocent angel in the household; and their mother portrays a mad woman that cannot cope with reality. These characters—Katniss in particular—are often misconstrued by audiences and critics. Katniss is …

Glass Slippers, Fairy Dust, And Feminist Ethics: Perrault And Barrie’S Influence On J.K. Rowling’S Independent Heroine, Gennesis Roman

English 502: Research Methods

My essay delves into J.K. Rowling's character of Hermione Granger. Hermione is a feminist character that seems to have been created with influence from Charles Perrault's "Cinderella" and J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan". This essay details the similarities between Cinderella, Wendy Darling, and Hermione Granger, all while proving Rowling's feminist leaning when creating Hermione.

The Complexity Of Common Core: Teaching Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince As A 7th Grade Complex Text, Allyson R. Jones

Honors Theses

With the implementation of the Common Core State Standards occurring across the country, schools and students are seeing changes in the organization of education. These standards, grounded in English Language Arts and Mathematics, are designed to push students’ critical thinking skills, writing ability, and methods of communication to prepare them for their life beyond secondary education. For English Language Arts, there is an emphasis on teaching complex texts. In this study, I examined the qualities of complex texts to determine if Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince could be considered a teaching tool for seventh grade students. To do this, …

“The Future Of The Planet”− Scottish Cosmopolitanism/ Cosmofeminism And Environmentalism In Theresa Breslin’S Saskia’S Journey, Fiona Mcculloch

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses major themes and concerns in the young adult novel Saskia's Journey, by Theresa Breslin, with special attention to the relation between Breslin's environmental themes (and Scottish setting) with her portrayal of the novel's central character and multigenerational family relationships.

Language Of Harry's Wizards: Authentic Vocabulary Instruction, Divonna M. Stebick, Constance N. Nichols

Education Faculty Publications

This study was the result of a year long action research project within a middle school language arts classroom. The students showed improvement in their vocabulary skills due to this instruction using Harry Potter as a context.

Deconstructing The Rhetoric Of Fear In Post 9/11 Young Adult Literature, Ronald Dean Straight

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study demonstrates how M.T. Anderson's "Feed" (2002), Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies" (2006), and Veronica Roth's "Divergent" (2011) offer young adult readers alternative messages through tropes and rhetorical devices within a mediated reality. The outcome of these messages offers mixed messages about rebellion and conformity to young adults living in a post 9/11 global community. The development of this message begins with teens in "Feed" exploring a dystopian future where society is tied together through technology that eliminates boundaries. The teens within the story explore a world, for a week, where those boundaries are reestablished due to an act of terror, …

Perilous Wanderings Through The Enchanted Forest: The Influence Of The Fairy-Tale Tradition On Mirkwood In Tolkien's The Hobbit, Marco R.S. Post

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Considers the roots of Mirkwood in European fairy tale traditions, using Basile’s Pentamerone as a typical example, and how Tolkien adapted and rejected traditional features of the perilous wood to suit his thematic and stylistic needs as a story-teller.

Where Fantasy Fits: The Importance Of Being Tolkien, Richard C. West

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Scholar Guest of Honor speech, Mythcon 45. In his wide-ranging and conversational meditation on “Where Fantasy Fits,” the conference theme, West places Tolkien within a broad fantasy tradition but concentrates most closely on the decades preceding The Hobbit and following The Lord of the Rings, bearing out Garner Dozois’s observation that “[a]fter Tolkien, everything changed” for genre fantasy. Of particular interest is West’s discussion of science fiction works and authors appreciated by Tolkien and Lewis.

Reviews, David Bratman, Joe R. Christopher, Janet Brennan Croft, Bradford Lee Eden, Andrew Higgins, Tiffany Brooke Martin

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Stories About Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth. Brian Attebery. Reviewed by David Bratman.

The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on Middle-earth Corporeality. Edited by Christopher Vaccaro. Reviewed by Janet Brennan Croft.

Critical Essays on Lord Dunsany. S.T. Joshi, ed. Lanham MD. Reviewed by Tiffany Brooke Martin.

History, Guilt, and Habit. Owen Barfield. Reviewed by Bradford Lee Eden.

In the Nameless Wood: Explorations in the Philological Hinterland of Tolkien's Literary Creations. J.S. Ryan. Edited by Peter Buchs. Reviewed by Andrew Higgins.

The Letters of Ruth Pitter: Silent Music. Edited by Don W. King. Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher.

A Spenserian In Space: The Faerie Queene In C.S. Lewis's Perelandra, Paul R. Rovang

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Explores the influence of The Faerie Queene, one of the works C.S. Lewis was particularly involved with as a scholar, and the literary and Biblical traditions it drew upon, on Lewis’s Ransom trilogy and in particular on Perelandra. Ransom is identified with the Red Cross Knight.

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Peter S. Beagle's Transformations Of The Mythic Unicorn, Weronika Łaszkiewicz

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Traces the development of Beagle’s unicorns through the novel The Last Unicorn and three other stories, paying particular attention to how and why Beagle adapted and rejected certain distinguishing features of traditional unicorn lore and legend.

Cults Of Lovecraft: The Impact Of H.P. Lovecraft's Fiction On Contemporary Occult Practices, John Engle

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Examines a particularly troubling use of fiction: the adoption of an author’s work, against his own intentions, as a quasi-religious text for cultic practices. Lovecraft’s mythos is thus observed in the process of deliberately being made into a worship tradition by occult and Satanic practitioners, in spite of the author’s personal scientific rationalism.

Political Institutions In J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth: Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying About The Lack Of Democracy, Dominic J. Nardi, Jr.

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Alexei Kondratiev Student Paper Award, Mythcon 45. Examines traditional political structures, theories of how they work, and how they play out in Tolkien’s Middle-earth among fantastic races and landscapes. Especially intriguing is the way in which the immortality of some races and individuals affects the power balance.

Toying With Fantasy: The Postmodern Playground Of Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels, Daniel Luthi

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Attempts to discover exactly how Terry Pratchett manages to get away with violating the rules of the fantasy tradition laid out in Tolkien’s “On Fairy-stories.” Pratchett consistently revels in the absurdity of Discworld as a concept, breaks the fourth wall, and disrupts Tolkien’s proviso against satirizing magic itself; and yet the Discworld sails on, imperturbable. Pratchett’s concept of narrative imperative is discussed as one of the keys to the success of his invented world.

"Think Happy Thoughts": Peter Pan As A Tragic Hero, Sarah M. Connelly

Student Publications

Using Aristotle's definition of the "tragic hero," this work will explore J.M. Barrie's novel, Peter and Wendy, and how Peter is a tragic figure. In this paper I argue that Peter Pan is not only a tragic hero whose human frailty— in Peter’s case, his fear of growing old— causes him to make the terrible mistake of rejecting his own development of humanity and the opportunity for redemption through maternal love, but that Barrie uses Peter to emphasize that, contrary to the Romantic conception of childhood, children need the guidance of parents in order to live a fulfilling life.

The Story Of My Art: A Study In Fiction Writing, Victoria J. Steelman

Senior Honors Theses

This creative thesis examines the several aspects of the author’s study and experience on the path to become a fiction writer. The author’s writing theory is addressed, utilizing research from a variety of authorities on the subject and focusing primarily on the nonexistence of rules for crafting fiction, the role of education in the life of the writer, and the importance of the practice of writing itself. The second section details the writer’s personal method of crafting fiction, focusing on the key elements of character, plot, and setting. The third section contains a full marketing plan for the author’s intended …

Harry Potter As A Piece Of Apocalyptic Fiction, Cambria Findley-Grubb

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series remains one of the most popular series ever created, loved by adults and children alike. The Harry Potter series has been translated into over thirty languages in more than one hundred and thirty countries (Killinger 2). This series has spawned a billion dollar industry eight movies, merchandise including shirts, cloaks, wands, and bobble heads, an intercollegiate muggle quidditch league, and a multimillion-dollar amusement park attraction However, despite its increasing popularity and fandom, Harry Potter remains a highly controversial book among fundamentalist religious groups because of its involvement in the world of witches, wizards, and magic. …

Where Is The Girl Power? The Search For Authentic Portrayals Of Female Athletes In Ya Lit, Emilee Hussack, Pauline Skowron Schmidt

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Children's/Young Adult (Ya) Author Event: Tim Green Author Visit, Roxanne M. Forgrave

Grant Reports

The Children’s/Young Adult Author Committee at Olivet Nazarene University received a $2500 Community Engagement Grant from the university. Because of this grant, the university hosted Tim Green, a former NFL football player who is now authoring books of primary interest to fourth through eighth graders. The success of this grant is difficult to measure, but in numbers, more than 3200 4^th - 8^th grade students and their teachers attended his speaking events during his two day visit. Green autographed more than 400 books for the attendees. Regarding reading motivation, area teachers have and still are reporting students, boys …

The Librarian In Rowling’S Harry Potter Series, Mary Freier

Mollie Freier

In her article "The Librarian in Rowling's Harry Potter Series" Mary P. Freier discusses Hermione Granger's skills as a librarian and researcher which lead to the defeat of Lord Voldemort. In each novel in the series, Hermione's research provides the necessary information for the solving of the mystery. Throughout the series, Hermione proves to be the only character who can use books effectively without putting herself or others in danger. Hermione begins the series as a child who loves the library, but does not always know how to use it effectively, while Madam Pince begins the series as a stereotypical …

Mythcon 45 - Where Fantasy Fits, The Mythopoeic Society

Mythcon Programs

Fantasy literature does not fit comfortably into any scheme. Both old and new, traditional and innovative, popular and elite, mainstream and esoteric, escapist and engaged, high-tech and anti-technology, fantasy defies definitions and transcends categories, dramatizing the incompleteness of our understanding of our own imaginations. At Mythcon 45 we will discuss the place of fantasy in our culture, our institutions, and our hearts.

Crew: Finding Community When Your Dreams Crash, Christin N. Taylor

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Most young adults at some point experience a personal "shipwreck"—missing out on the job you wanted, the unexpected end of a relationship, a crisis of faith—that threatens to rip apart the fabric of your identity. What helps navigate a personal shipwreck is to have a crew of reliable people who walk with you through it.

In Crew: Finding Community When Your Dreams Crash, Christin Taylor explores how young adults can both find good company during a time of personal shipwreck and be good company for others who might be experiencing their own shipwreck. In the process, you will learn …

I Walk Into Darkness, Jeremy Hachey

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

On A Sea Of Wind, Nicolo Santilli

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Contributors, Gwenyth E. Hood

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Mythic Circle #36, Gwenyth E. Hood

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Gwenyth E. Hood

The Mythic Circle

No abstract provided.